In this Feb. 16, 2007, file photo, Amy Winehouse poses for photographs after being interviewed by the AP at a studio in north London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

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Asif Kapadia's documentary Amy, about late singer Amy Winehouse, is due out Friday, and there are already droves of people who may not be happy about it, reports the New York Times. Although the director "avoids definitive finger-pointing," the paper notes, among those who don't come off in the best light are Winehouse's ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil; her management team; and even all of us, the "gossip-mongering public," as the Times puts it. But it's Winehouse's dad, Mitch Winehouse, who saw a screening of the film in October, who thinks he got the worst rap. "It was horrible," he told the Guardian in May. "I told [the filmmakers] that they were a disgrace. I said, 'You should be ashamed of yourselves. You had the opportunity to make a wonderful film and you've made this.'"

Mitch Winehouse tells the paper others had approached his family about putting together a movie, but they all "sounded a bit trashy," as the Guardian notes. Only when Kapadia took the helm for this project did Mitch Winehouse agree to it, since he had seen another Kapadia film and liked it. But Kapadia, who pulled the movie together from 100-plus interviews, plus lots of home video and media clips, tells the Times anything other than full creative control would have been a deal-breaker for him. "The whitewashy-type film was never going to work," he told the paper in a phone call. "The very first conversation I had with everybody was: 'Look, we all know how this ended. There are no surprises here. It wasn't pretty, and we have to deal with that.'"

Another brain-damaged smoker, killed by ILLEGAL TOBACCO DRUG, which must be BANNED, NOW!

brawne

Jun 30, 2015 4:23 PM CDT

I read the review in the NYT's this morning which I still trudge up to get from the mailbox and get all depressed cause twenty more deer ate fifty more hydrangea plants down to nothing but a stalk and a heavy bloom canting sideways--but, enough of that. Anyway, want to see this because they focus on the mental illness and the addiction. The AND there is huge. Addiction is not a thing unto itself--it's a symptom of whatever the mental illness is. And when I say mental illness, I'm including both parts of the manual: the organic things that have to do with neurotransmitters and the personality disorders. I'm so tired of people thinking that people make a choice to be miserable. It's like thinking people make a choice to be gay. Mental illness needs to be the new gay. Not meaning that gay is mentally ill, but now that the Supreme Court says--gay, smay--who cares? Lets take all that focus and put it on the new frontier of mental illness whether organic or disordered. Cause gay people are covered--totally equal and good and I hope you enjoy that divorce as much as we straight people did. But, Obama has talked twelve times since 2008 about someone shooting up other people. And all twelve are about mental illnesses and we focus on the gun or whatever. Amy Whinehouse is dead because she was mentally ill but that better kind where you only take yourself out and not five classes of first graders. Mental illness shouldn't be considered some odd thing--the brain that totally works growing up with parents whose brains totally work is the odd thing. Not odd--just rarer than you think. Cause a brain is an organ like any other but if your pancreas turns on you like Steve Job's did--well, that's an unlucky illness. If your brain turns on you and you drink yourself to death at 29? Well, she was just a mess? No? And we need to deal with this quickly cause science is catching up. Do you know how long it takes the ER doc to know you have appendicitis when you show up with a fever and lower abdominal pain and you're throwing up? Bout a second. This chick was bulimic and had a wicked addiction to stuff that finally killed her--Borderline Personality Disorder. A few years of dialectic therapy might have saved her--but, when it's just a choice like being gay? Then who cares about the symptoms of appendicitis? You know why women now die of heart attacks more than men? Cause the whole symptom thing for a heart attack was commisioned by the navy for guys on a sub. Was it a real heart attack or a panic attack--don't want to surface if he just needs a half a xannax. But, for years now those are the symptom guidelines and women have different symptoms cause they aren't men. And if any woman has read this far--brave you--but if your jaw starts to ache and won't stop and you feel like you have the flu? Yeah, that's a heart attack for our gender.